just wow!

 

 I might have posted these earlier if it hadn't been such a busy week.

 



This crazy cloud formation on Sunday morning was a mind blower as it seemed to grow out of the horizon.  It was actually heading for the horizon, the southeast, over Forget-Me-Not cabin's roof.

 

the Hydrangea in the morning light, the lovely orange of the neighbour's maple tree beyond

 

I head for the front of the house where the ash is glowing against a dark western sky. 

 

Another maple in another neighbour's yard is spectacular against this dark sky while the chartreuse and dull burgundy of our ash take on the bright morning light.

Below, a huge pile of hedge trimmings for me to break down before it snows.

 

I slipped a garland of fake apples and cranberries into my simple wreath of artificial ivy

 to make this autumn door arrangement. 

perhaps a few more grapevines would dress it up 

the homestead in the morning shadows

 

down our quiet street 

loving the wildness our across-the-street neighbours leave

 

Sunday was a gorgeous day so we made the most of it with more fall clean-up and 3 loads of laundry on the line. I was taking the 2nd load in when it started to snow tiny pellets. But it didn't last long.

 

 

This is one of those long posts where I put up several days' pictures.

 

It was an intense start to the week as we prepared for 2 trips to Halifax in a row.  Both trips started in the dark of the morning; on the first morning I amused myself with the Venus, Mars, Jupiter conjunction in the southeastern sky and the millions of stars in the black sky.

 



On the second morning I took great pleasure in the Halifax sky from an 8th floor window,

 

moody, dramatic and ever-changing.

 

These odd curls moved in with a teasing break in the clouds beyond

 

The clouds twisted

turned some more and began to break a part

 

while the blue beckoned beyond some even higher clouds.

 

It was a cool morning though not nearly as brisk as the day before so we decided to "chill" from the busy morning by strolling the Halifax Public Gardens, a short 2 blocks away.

 

 We chose the path to the right

 

Some gigantic bulrushes

 

spectacular colour

 

tender, almost "too delicate for this world" scented roses

blooming on ridiculously tall stems

 

The bandshell vista

and that evening's sky over our back yard with a hardy half moon

 

*

 

 This morning's sky sent me running for the camera. Honestly, we get some crazy, beautiful, dramatic skies out here which must have something to do with our proximity to the ocean.

The southeastern sky over Forget-Me-Not Cabin.

Like a long draught of water, I can't seem to get enough sky.

 

Babu appreciating the morning too.

 

And finally, a drawing I started in the car on Tuesday afternoon, engrossed, when suddenly I saw Wally waving, as he drove. He said that our newly re-elected MP (Member of Parliament) as of last night, was celebrating by waving his thank you's from his car, parked on the side of the highway. Too funny.

 

Anyway, here is the drawing:

 

I call this The Faerie Queene after Edmund Spenser's epic poem of the same name.

 

In my search for a rich black, I bounced between my Derwent Colorsoft Black and Koh-I-Noor's Progresso coloured pencil in Black. The big surprise came when I scribbled over some of my drawing in the Derwent Colorsoft White.  The creamy effect indicated a brown tinge to at least one of the blacks.  I worked in my 7x10 inch, 98 pound Canson XL mixed media sketchbook.

 

Between my Derwent pencils made in England, the Koh-I-Noor made in the Czech Republic, my sketchbook made of French paper but bound in Poland, and my drawing made here in Canada, I find myself quite amazed by how these connections are made in today's world. I'm amazed even more when I consider all the human beings involved, the investments, business, advertising and travel that brought this all together. Not to mention the Internet, Google, Blogger, Telecommunications and Electricity!

 

Just Wow!

last evening's sky

 

Beginning where I left off last night, the aftermath of yesterday's rain as the sun sets behind the great old ash at the front of our driveway.

 





As seen through the vestibule door, reflections and all, we are finally seeing some leaf fall.

Wally called me to see the view as colour filled the sky.

 

Though I couldn't capture the colour in the southeastern sky,

 the "sweetlight" was enriching the colours everywhere else, as the sun set 

The northeastern sky had colour too that I couldn't capture over our newly trimmed maple hedges,

 the top of our neighbour's house beyond.

a vignette in this same window

 

The glow in the southern sky is waning now

as I catch a few parting shots

 

at dusk

 

Some details from some watercolours

 

that show merit in themselves and emulate last night's evening sky.

 

have a lovely weekend

look for the beauty; it's everywhere

friday, dear friday

I'm relieved somehow that it is Friday.
Not that I have a typical work week; it's just a psychological thing that it is somehow an ending, a passing of some difficult processing. It's all good.

It's been a gorgeous week

The colours are deepening

 

I love the view to the southeast past the perimeter of the hayfield.

 

Here is Forget-Me-Not Cabin in context. You can see our neglected little garden with the concrete sheep statue by the tomatoes near the bottom of the picture.

 

Today it began to rain just as I prepared to do some yard work

 

so I committed my little drawing, that I cut out last week,

 to collaging it over a watercolour background

Each were "throwaways" in my mind til I brought them together,

"the whole greater than the sum of the parts"

 

with a little patience we come through even the most difficult times

finding calm in that centre that is the eye of the storm

 

 

truly grateful

Our Thanksgiving long weekend is over, but can thankfulness ever be over? Can we afford the blindness of thinking that we exist in complete isolation, immaculately free of any support, islands unto ourselves?

In a state of romantic nostalgia, Wally made his father's green tomato soup,

which turned out to be stewed tomatoes, thick and somewhat tart. ok...

I think it wasn't quite the way Wally remembered it, but you know what? It was worth the try.

 

 

We spent a good chunk of the weekend  continuing with our fall clean up, tidying the garage, trimming hedges as well as taking advantage of the beautiful weather to hang laundry and open windows. No sooner had I brought the laundry out than this unusual stripey bug was sitting on the first item I went to hang. I scrambled in the house for my camera.

 

By dusk, I was drawn out to take a few parting shots of the hayfield,

 

the colours glowing in the failing light.

I took a picture of the tomatoes with their guardian

 

then the dark beauty of the hollyhocks that have made a last stand,

or rather droop as they have grown downwards.

I lay a hydrangea stem down on the bench by the composter

 

as I photographed the green tomatoes that are thriving inside the composter,

 preventing us from using it this year.

 

Here is the hydrangea stem in a vase of Ninebark that Wally pruned.

It spent the night in the vestibule to keep the cats from destroying it, 

as if it was in a florist's refrigerator.

 

Are you still feeling the wistfulness of autumn as I am? This is a time of contrast, great beauty, abundance and loss. This quote by Mark Twain keeps helping me to put things into perspective:

 

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.

 It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

 

The ego resides in our attachment to sadness, timidity and false modesty as surely as it does in arrogance, disdain and pretense; the trick is to catch it before it does more damage. My impression is that "it's what [we think we know] for sure..." that gets us "into trouble." Once we realize we can never know the ultimate "Reason", whether it's the proverbial missing the flight that goes down, or losing the chance of a desired job that will be made redundant 6 months later, we eventually learn to "roll with it". 

 

Identifying the ego in most of what we "think" suppresses its importance.  

This makes me truly grateful.

 

 

 

autumn transit

I hope this Thanksgiving weekend finds you well and appreciating the blessings of life.
The chill is in the air here and brings a kind of snuggly feeling. I must find a new book to cuddle up with now that I've finally finished my 800+ page summer reading of Vincent Van Gogh's life.

I've been entertaining the idea of cutting up my drawings to reconceive them as collages.

I folded both of these for the bin or shopping lists, but reconsidered,

 cutting them out one evening last week. They haven't moved to the gluing down stage yet.

 

Then, yesterday, we went for an afternoon drive and this came out of my pencils.

The combination of poor long distance vision and Vincent's influence manifested in this funky piece.

My sister suggested "like Monet" as well, as he had cataracts that affected his painting.

 

sending you my appreciation for your visit.

peace my friend

gentle surprises

Ah, the morning has passed as I prepared these pictures to share with you

and a gloomy one it was, too, the fall colours starting

I spent yesterday allowing this to unfold from my coloured pencils and watercolour pencils with no agenda- except for the bird in the flower- happy to be led into Fairy Wisdom.

They seem surprised, don't they?

 

like Muji was the other day

and Babu, who I came upon this morning, having his after-breakfast-wash-up

He was happy to greet me

by throwing himself onto his back

 

and beckoning me for some attention

 

the soul of love

 

Muji has returned to his favourite chair- Wally's-

by the heat pump now that the weather has cooled.

 

let all our surprises be gentle,

present to the nature of life,

living,

and being. 

bam! it's October

Well, that was some good-bye September/hello October!
What started as a balmy light summer evening rain turned into a deluge that brought Autumn in with a cold front. Just so we know.

My pretty boy Babu watching me take pictures in the light of the vestibule.

 

rockin' with my watercolour pencils

a doll's head turned flower fairy

 

and coloured pencil and watercolour

starting with those eyes and letting the picture unfold

 

Onward and upward October

 

sit, walk, stand in your light

you are magic

you are chosen